"And Then You Caught The Snitch" by theknightbus



Summary: Missing Moment of Harry and Ginny down by the lake.

Ever wonder what happened to Harry and Ginny once they left the Gryffindor common room? What did they talk about? What did they feel? Sometimes a walk around the lake can be very eventful. And sometimes the beginning of relationships can be the most memorable. One shot.
Rating: PG-13 starstarstarstarhalf-star
Categories: Post-HBP
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 2011.06.24
Updated: 2011.06.24


"And Then You Caught The Snitch" by theknightbus
Chapter 1: "And Then You Caught The Snitch"
Author's Notes:

“The creature in his chest roaring in triumph, he grinned down at Ginny and gestured wordlessly to the portrait hole. A long walk in grounds seemed indicated, during which-if they had time-they might discus they match.”-Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
“And Then You Caught The Snitch”
By: theknightbus

Harry’s legs were carrying him out of the common room before he realized it. He looked back at Ginny as she climbed through the portrait hole. He held the door open for her, careful not to guide her through.

She was grinning. He was sure that he was too. Once she was beside him they started walking down the corridor in complete silence.

Harry took the moment to look over at her as they walked. She was still wearing her quidditch robes, she was in the process of removing her gloves, and her red hair was falling out of her plait. Harry tried to make the look as discreet as possible, so as to not offend her.

Her grin was gone, and in the place of it a smirk.

She looked back up at him meeting his eyes. Instantly he looked away from her. He was reminded of playing a game of peek a boo with a child. And then she started laughing, it started off as a giggle-and Harry completely unaware of why he felt the need to as well, maybe it had something to do with months of released tension, maybe it was the fact that Ginny didn’t seem to be mad at him for kissing her in the packed common room-he was laughing too.

They began laughing so hard that they could hardly stand up. Harry was bent over with one hand clutching his side. Ginny’s back was pressed up against the stoned corridor. With every second her face was beginning to match the shade of her robes.

A group of Ravenclaw girls passed them muttering and giving them suspicious looks. It only made them laugh even harder.

When they stopped, Harry looked back over at Ginny. She had managed to control herself but still looked a little flustered, and without another word, just as Harry did in the common room-he gestured towards the grounds outside of Hogwarts.

“Shall we?” He asked quietly.

“Mmm” and Ginny took her arm linking it in his own, and walking. Harry felt a small jolt in his stomach.

Harry was surprised at how the grounds had seemed so nice The sun was high in the sky shining and there were hardly any people walking around. The lake seemed refreshing, and Harry swore he could hear birds chirping.

“Not so fast.” Ginny had turned Harry around so quickly he had almost last balance. She held his arms in hers and gave him one of those long blazing look of hers.

Merlin her eyes are perfect.

He continued looking straight at her until Ginny’s expression finally softened, and the ease in which she was hanging on to him did too. He wished it wouldn’t as he was growing to like it more and more every second that she did.

“How long?”

He contemplated.

“A while,” He said with a sigh.

And he saw Ginny break out into a small smirk. The same one that she had on while they were in the castle. But then he began to see her smirk change, as her brow furrowed and an angrier look emerged, one of the same looks that Harry had seen on Mrs. Weasley one too many times at the Burrow. The creature in his chest buried itself further into the ground.

There was a pause, in which Harry eyes never left Ginny’s

And then she spoke. “And why didn’t you tell me before Harry Potter? Why were you wasting so much time?”

The creature in his chest roared. And before he could defend himself-he was kissing her again. Her lips were just as soft as they were before. That flowery scent was surrounding him, and just as quickly as it had begun it was over. Ginny had pulled away.

“Kissing goes two ways Potter.” Her lips were open. And Harry’s eyes darted from them back to her eyes and back to the freckles that bridged across her nose. He loved them.

“We’ll I didn’t see you backing away.” He offered her.

“Oh yeah.” She quirked her eyebrow up at him.

“Mmhm.” It was Harry’s turn to be smug. When they had walked out of the common room he didn’t know what to expect. He was praying more than anything she wouldn’t be angry with him. Now that he knew she wasn’t, he wanted to take the mickey out of her just a bit.

“You’re lucky you’re not on the receiving end of my bat boogey hex.”

“You wouldn’t” Harry tested her.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t dare,” Ginny said. But she wasn’t looking at him threateningly; instead she had that mischievous grin on her face. Harry had definitely seen it a few times during quidditch practice, or whenever when she was about to perform a vicious prank on Ron. And he had to admit he was a little worried.

All of a sudden, she reached up her hands to his face. She thought he might slap him or else take his head into her hands to kiss him, but instead she took his glasses off the bridge of his nose and began running with them.

“Ginny!” He yelled.

“That’s what you get Potter!” she yelled. And even though he stood there completely blind, he was still smiling. He was squinting his eyes into the sun, barely able to see. All he could make out was the small outline of a fiery red head, with her hair flowing behind her moving further away from him. If it had been Ron, Hermione, or anyone else who had done that Harry would have ran after them cursing them with some type of spell. Instead he just stood their powerless. For nothing could have made him angry at this moment.

“That’ll teach you to be snarky with me,” she said.

Harry just stood there. On one hand he could try to “Accio” his glasses away from her. But on the other hand, he could just let her run around, say “yes”, and then maybe he could finish what he was starting before she pulled away from him. He decided on the latter.

“You’re right. How could I mess with the youngest Weasley?” If that didn’t help, then nothing could.

His eyes kept forward as he saw the figure get closer to him. She continued to walk slowly towards him until before he knew it, her face was inches from his. He felt the breath catch in his throat again at the prospect of being so close to her face.

And then she lowered her mouth down to Harry’s neck right by his ear, and blew in small circles across it. Harry felt himself shiver.

“Uh Ginny”. He was struggling to get a hold of his voice. “Maybe it would be better if you just gave me back my glasses.”

He heard her laugh into the nape of hair at his neck.

“Nah, I think I’ll keep them, thanks. How about closing your eyes and following me somewhere? I know somewhere private where we could talk about the match.”

“And how do you presume I follow you if I have no glasses Miss Weasley?”

“Did you forget that I have a hand Harry?”

The moment she said that he instantly felt dumb. Why had he not thought of holding her hand? Wasn’t that something that he should have thought of?

Suddenly the idea of holding her hand made him just as nervous as walking out of the common room. He decided to just grab a hold of it, and was surprised at how perfectly it fit into his own. It was warmer than his, smaller, and definitely softer than Harry’s, though he could feel the small calluses on her palm, and knew it was because of the amount of time she carried the quaffel in her hand.

“Where are we going?” He asked.

“Definitely a surprise.”

He let himself close his eyes, allowing only his senses and Ginny’s lead to guide him through the grass. The sun still felt hot, there wind had picked up, but he couldn’t keep his attention on anything long enough except the witch to his left.

“I don’t get a hint” Harry inquired.

“Nope. And keep those pretty green eyes of your shut.”

She led him across the great lake-or at least Harry assumed so. He had walked the grounds for six years-he had to have known where she was taking him.

They swerved each way. Sometimes while they were walking, she would make a certain detour and make Harry spin around, or walk backwards, and even once she made him stop altogether, before continuing to walk with her. It took them a little less than ten minutes before Ginny stopped.

“OK. Open up.”

Ginny gave Harry back his glasses. Harry looked up. He didn’t really know where he was, but it was pretty and unlike anything he had seen. Like the great lake, there were trees everywhere, and a small replica version of the quidditch pitch, with two brooms along the grass. There was a spool in the center of the enclosed area.

“What is this place?”

“Oh, you don’t think you’re the only one that has their own secrets around Hogwarts do you?” Ginny teased him.

“Did you think talking here would give us more privacy?” Harry asked.

“Oh I think privacy is required for other things.” Ginny raised her eyebrows.

Harry felt his face turning red. He couldn’t remember the last time that he blushed. He was so used to the days in which Ginny would blush. She seemed to catch on though.

“To reenact the quidditch match of course!”

“I really can’t believe you guys won it.” Harry was smiling at her.

“I wish you could have seen it. I wasn’t the best or anything but it felt so good seeking again.”

“I wish I could have been there.” He said in earnest.

For the third time in the day he was aware of their growing closeness to each other.

When had that happened? They were just talking.

“Want to sit down Harry?”

She was striking.

He sat down as she began to take her quidditch robes off, her boots, and let the falling plait in her hair down, until she was in nothing but her quidditch training shorts and t shirt.

He was trying to decide what to say to her. It was so much easier kissing her than trying to plan out an entire conversation of why he had kissed her, what she expected from him now that he kissed her, and what she wanted him to say after he kissed her. He would much rather hear her speak about quidditch the entire afternoon because he felt the inevitable impending silence very uncomfortable.

“Well I have to say that I never knew you were that bold Harry.”

She was sitting close to him up against a particularly shady tree. Harry felt himself instantly relax as she sat nestled against him.

“I’m just glad you didn’t kill me.”

“Never,” she was thrown off at the prospect.

“If not you than Ron for sure.” Harry retorted.

“I don’t care what Ron says,” Ginny said laughing.

“Well I want to make sure he’s OK with...” Harry looked down at Ginny resting against his arm. Her face was staring lazily ahead until it rested on his in his period of silence…”this.” He finished lamely.

He gestured at both of them laying there as to make it better.

Ginny giggled. It was something that Harry could get used to.

“What’s.... this?” Ginny asked.

“Well…I didn’t know how Ron would be OK with us seeing each other.”

“I didn’t know that we were seeing each other.” Ginny teased him. “I think you’d have to ask me first.”

Harry found himself struggling with words.

“I mean that is if you want to…” And for once Ginny seemed to hesitate slightly. She was still looking up at him, her mouth full-and her brown eyes shining at him.

If I can battle Voldemort three times, I can surely ask Ginny to be my girlfriend.

He took a quick breath. “Ginny, would you like to be with me?” There he had said it. He marveled at the way those vulnerable words sounded stupid in the air.

He felt Ginny move closer into him. He studied the bridge of freckles across her nose and put his hand in her hair. It felt silky.

And then they were kissing each other, and Harry aware of his surroundings never wanted it to stop. He continued that way, until seconds dragged into minutes, using every sense of his to take in what was happening. The creature in his chest was aware of everything she seemed to be doing to him from the small kisses that she was placing down his neck, to the way she held his head in both her hands.

And Harry was aware of how much better and much “more right” this was than kissing Cho. When they broke apart from each other they were slightly out of breath, and Ginny seemed to laugh at the look of bewilderment on Harry’s face. Both their eyes were glossy.

“We definitely can’t do that in front of Ron,” Harry said.

“Oh way to kill the mood here Harry,” said Ginny. But he knew that she was laughing too.

“I just don’t think that he would appreciate the fact that I was snogging you that’s all.”

“Better you than Dean that’s for sure,” Ginny said.

“Damn right,” Harry muttered.

“Was someone jealous?”

“Maybe I knew my feelings weren’t entirely brotherly for you when I walked in on you in that corridor,” Harry said.

“And yet you didn’t say anything?” Ginny asked.

He tried doing his best mocking voice. “What could I have said “Hey Dean can you get off of my best friends sister-right now-Its bothering me more than I thought.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Ginny stressed. “Besides,” she added “I’ve been going out with you for a total of two minutes and I already like you more than I could have ever liked Dean.”

Harry felt the monster in chest roar in approval. Whether the afternoon was slightly getting the better of him or he felt as though he had inhaled a bottle of firewhiskey and with it all the confidence of inebriation he asked “what’s so much better about him than me?”

Ginny smacked her lips together, surprised at his question but more than willing to answer.

“I could start with the obvious, you’re taller, have better looking eyes, and you’re frankly just more attractive.”
Harry felt the heat rising to his face again. Ginny had moved from practically laying on top of him to sitting cross legged in front of him holding his hands. For every quality she attributed to him, she would place down one of his fingers.

“And then you have that whole annoying loyalty thing to you. No matter who it is you’re always helping someone. You’re smart-but not too smart like Hermione. You play a damn good game of quidditch. You’re nice. And from what I can tell a pretty decent kisser. So are we done here, or would the “boy-who lived” like to hear more?”

Harry was positive that he was practically smug.

“Guess not” Ginny answered for him. “What about me? Do I get to fish for compliments too? What’s so special about me compared to Cho?”

Everything.

“Well…” He thought about it for a long time. “You caught the snitch.”

Ginny pounced at him. And began tickling him everywhere. And Harry became aware of the fact that he could not remember the last time he had ever been laying on the Hogwarts ground, with a beautiful girl on top of him, showing him even the slightest attention. He could also not remember the last time someone was tickling him.

“You know Hermione was right,” Ginny said, after the tickling war between them had come to an obvious understood peace due to the lack of energy they both had.

“She thought that you might be starting to take an interest in me,” she added.

“Leave it to Hermione to be right on just about everything,” Harry said. He was taking in big gulps of air.

“You know at some point we’re going to have to face the music right?” Ginny looked back at him again.

“The music?”

“All those people talking about what happened. All the people talking about you and us,” Ginny said.

The idea had never crossed Harry’s mind. That people cared enough about his relationship made him puzzled. But the idea of it didn’t resonate so terribly with him.

“I’ll bat bogey hex anyone who gives you a hard time about it,” Ginny said.

“I don’t know why they would,” Harry said.

“Well the offer stands baby,” Ginny said.

Baby? She did that on purpose.

“That’s good to know that I have someone protecting me,” Harry teased.

They spent the next thirty minutes talking about what people might say to their new relationship. They talked about Ron and Hermione. And Harry felt so good about how easy it was to talk to her about school work and problems that seemed to be eating away at him lately. And they did more than talk too. Harry being a gentleman, and Ginny slightly testing the boundaries of their new relationship. When the sun began to fade slowly into the ground, Harry let their conversation and kisses drag to an end.

For the creature in his chest, or rather the emptiness in his stomach began to roar.

“Great hall?”

“Not before you show me exactly what you did on that broom today,” Harry ignored her request to catch dinner early. Partly because he wanted a complete reenactment of the match earlier and mostly because he did not want to leave the peaceful spot with her.

“You ever going to tell me how you found this place?” Harry questioned her as she walked over to one of the comet 260’s on the ground.

“Never.” She answered back in a sing songy voice.

“I’ll just have to find it on that map of mine.”

“Sometimes even the Mauraders can’t find these places,” Ginny answered.

Of course the twins would tell her about the map.

“I’ll take you back here with my invisibility cloak if you let me know.” Harry bargained with her.

Ginny held back her look of surprise well and accepted. After, she launched into a whole detail play by play of the match. Harry appreciated hearing it out of her mouth rather than hearing the commentary from Luna Lovegood. She talked about the way that the Ravenclaw offense played with extreme precision. She criticized the sly way the beaters we’re acting on their team. She even reenacted seventeen different goals in different positions.

But while she did all of this, Harry could only focus (besides on the fact that he needed to talk to Demelza later about riling up the opposing teammates) on what she had told him earlier. That it was not his superhero status or his reputation on being “the boy who lived” that attracted her to him. She never once spoke about his legend or his supposed need to be “the chosen one.” She had simply liked him because he was just Harry James Potter. He was a regular student on the Hogwarts’s ground with his girlfriend. He was just “Harry” to her. It made him the happiest of anything.

“Harry are you listening to me!” Ginny yelled over at him. She had one hand on her hip again and wore a face of fake annoyance. He realized that the sky around him was darker than it had been just a few minutes ago and that they should be heading back. He looked at her hair; it was frazzled in every way with bits of twigs in it. And he felt a certain pride that he had done that.

“Do you want to head back?”

“I am the very end of the match here Harry Potter, let me finish!”

“Right of course...”

“And so then Cho and I were speeding down, we must have been going at least sixty miles per hour. And I am not saying I did a Wronski Feint or anything, but I am sure it was as close as I could get to doing one without actually doing one. And I reached my hands out just in time, practically falling off my broom mind you and-I caught the snitch.” Ginny said with a look of triumph on her face. Her white skin beginning to glow in the night.

“And then you caught the snitch,” He repeated.

Then Harry grinned.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

This story archived at http://www.siye.co.uk/siye/viewstory.php?sid=129285